In recent years, in association with progress in the fields of computer-related technology or popularization of electronic networks such as the Internet, Intranet, Extranet or the like, all types of information used in daily life, business, and services are converted to electronic information. This information is then delivered to end users or accumulated in a computer-based database.
As described above, electronic information is used in various forms (including processing, retrieval, and delivery of information) irrespective of whether the information is digital one or analog one, and there have been proposed or actually put into use various types of technology for treating the electronic information itself with a format or a data structure enabling treatment thereof in an easier way.
For instance, text information, which is one type of electronic information, has a structure tag expressing a logic structure such as SGML, HTML, and XML to express the logic structure defined therein, and contents of information and a logic structure thereof can be expressed when the information is delivered. Therefore, when text information is to be used, processing for preparing and processing a summary enabling efficient retrieval of the text information can be executed at a higher speed.
In case of video information, which is another type of electronic information, there has been provided the video filing technology enabling efficient accumulation or retrieval of static images or movies.
Further as a conventional type of technology for retrieval of video-images, there have been disclosed the “Medium For Retrieving Animation Image Information And Device Therefor” in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 6-83877, “Method And Device For Video Image Retrieval” in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 8-163479, “Animation Retrieving System” in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 8-221432, “Video/Audio Raw Material Managing/Retrieval System” in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 9-18432, “Method And Device For Retrieving Video Image” in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 9-50436, and “Video Retrieval Method” in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 10-40260.
However, method of expressing a logic structure inside the video information for video information including sounds and animation is unknown. Therefore, there are problems such that the use of video information is not easy as compared to other types of information, or that there are several restrictions in reproducing the video information. In other words, there is the problem that there has not been provided the user interface technique enabling improvement in adaptability of video information to operation, application, and treatment.
More specifically, there have been such defects in the conventional technology as (1) retrieval can not be made with respect to the internal information in the video information, (2) jumping to a required section in order to identify a required scene can not be executed unless the entire video information is checked once and marks are put at required sections, and (3) a dedicated device or technology is required for preparing a digest of video information.
With the conventional technology for retrieving video-images as described above it is possible to retrieve video information including a desired scene from a plurality of video information (such as, for instance, a plurality of movie contents) or to identify a position at which a desired scene is included in one video information. However, the techniques can not always be applied to all types of video information because of the defects as described below.
With the “Medium For Retrieving Animation Image Information And Device Therefor” in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 6-83877, the operator is required to find out a desired scene, by looking at a movie index previously prepared by copying a sequence of moving pictures. In this case, there is the problem that a video-image obtained as a result of retrieval depends on subjectivity of the operator who searches visually by checking the moving picture index, and also that a large volume of moving pictures can not be treated.
With the “Method And Device For Video Image Retrieval” disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 8-163479, it is required to successively display a series of images each showing a scene in video-information so that an operator can find out a desired scene from the displayed images. In this case, there is the problem that a video-image obtained as a result of retrieval depends on subjectivity of an operator searches visually by checking the moving picture index, and also that a large volume of moving pictures can not be treated.
With the “Animation Retrieving System” disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 8-221432, a desired video is retrieved by using a menu in which videos as objects for retrieval are classified, so that a work for classifying the videos as objects for retrieval is required. Therefore, there is a problem that the precision in retrieval varies depending on how the videos are classified for preparing a menu.
The “Video/Audio Raw Material Managing/Retrieval System” according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 9-18432 is for a system used in a business organization or a public facility treating a large volume of video information such as a broadcasting station. Therefore, there is the problem that the information which can be treated with this system is limited to video information such as that for a news program for which a text expressing the content switch characters exists.
With the “Method And Device For Retrieving Video Image”disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 9-50436, a keyword for retrieval is assigned to each video information, so that by inputting a retrieval keyword indicating desired audio information, to retrieve video information with a keyword for retrieval identical to the retrieval keyword can be retrieved. However, it is necessary to assign a keyword for retrieval taking into considerations contents of the entire video information as an object for retrieval when assigning a keyword for retrieval to the video information, so that it is disadvantageously troublesome to select and assign a keyword for retrieval when there are may topics in one video information, or when a time of one video information is long.
The “Video Retrieval Method” disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 10-40260 requires that character information such as superimposition is included in the video information as an object for retrieval, and can not be applied to video information not including character information.
Similarly, with the conventional technology as described above, there has not been provided a method for expressing a logic structure inside an audio information. Therefore, there are the problems that it is not easy to use audio information as compared to other types of information, or that there are some restrictions in reproducing audio information. In other words, a user interface enabling sufficient improvement in operating, processing, and treating audio information is not known.
Further a video retrieval system making it possible to easily retrieve internal information inside video information has not been provided in the conventional technology.